RX 580 suddenly stopped working after I upgraded my CPU cooler...??!

[peanutismint]

I'm trying to keep a (very!) ageing PC alive that I built in 2012.... Most recent upgrade was a Radeon RX 580 8GB in early 2020 and it's running very nicely. I dual boot Windows and MacOS (Hackintosh) if that makes any difference.

Today I decided to upgrade my crappy stock Intel CPU cooler to a nice Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L. Installation went fine; the cooler is second hand and sounds like an outboard boat engine but hopefully that will go away....!

Anyway, after I got it installed I turned on the machine and I had no video output from my GPU's HDMI port. It was the same port I'd been using just an hour previously. I could tell the system was still booting fine, albeit headless with no video output, so I swapped the HDMI to the on-board graphics of my motherboard (a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H) and managed to get to my BIOS. Everything else looked fine, but now I can't boot into MacOS (because it doesn't play nicely with Intel integrated graphics), and when I boot to Windows 10 my RX580 is nowhere to be found in device manager.....?!

I have no recollection of any static discharge, any bumps or knocks, or any kind of wiring/short circuit issue that might have killed the Radeon. I've re-seated it and it's making good contact with the socket. I've re-seated the power leads and everything looks good. Its fans spin up as normal and even the little 'Sapphire' logo lights up in RGB. I tried disconnecting everything in case my 500W power supply wasn't feeding it enough with the addition of the new cooler but it didn’t work. I also took off the new cooler and returned everything back to how it was before but I still couldn’t get any video out of the card.

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen before? My next steps are to try the other video outputs of the card, but my monitor only has HDMI and I've tried both HDMI slots on the card, as well as two different cables, same result. Onboard video works fine with my HDMI cable so I know it's good.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to troubleshoot the GPU please let me know. I have no idea what might have happened but I really hope my 'new' GPU isn't suddenly dead.....

 

[peanutismint]

Thanks all; I’ve only just learned about flashing the GPU bios... Would that even be possible if the card isn’t even showing up in device manager?

As for setting the graphics preference in my Gigabyte BIOS, I have it set to prioritise the ‘PEG’ graphics (which I think is Pci Express Graphics...?!) but I don’t wanna disable the integrated GPU because then if my GPU isn’t working I won’t be able to get back into my BIOS or re-enable the iGPU....

 

[peanutismint]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I have a new PSU coming today so I can rule that out, but one thing I will be checking first is that no dust/anything else foreign got blown into anywhere it shouldn’t have when I blew out the card with compressed air, as I have a feeling it could be something as simple as Meddling Monk’s similar issue..... will report back soon!

 

[peanutismint]

Ok so update - new PSU didn't fix anything, neither did inspecting the ports, checking for dust, trying the DisplayPort or updating my motherboard's BIOS... I'm afraid it might just be 'dead'. And of course, Sapphire's customer support were useless and just said "yeah it probably just went bad". Like, it's a GPU, it's not milk. Take some ownership.....!

Anyone have any further ideas? I've taken it apart to inspect visually but can't see any obvious problems....

Pics here: https://imgur.com/gallery/g9BY9nX

 

[peanutismint]

You've tried the card in other pcie slots already? Have you flashed the bios on the card yet?

Yep, tried the card in another PCIe slot, and tried another PCIe card in the same slot (it worked). I tried flashing the BIOS but the AMD BIOS tool won't even detect the card, so I'm guessing that's going to be a problem.....

I'd try reseating the CPU, clean the pins under it. If the only thing you've changed is the cooler, and CPU will be responsible for those pcie lanes?

Thanks, that's a good idea, although I have tried another GPU in the same PCIe slot and it worked, so I'm guessing the problem lies in this card

I am sure you have already thought of it, but can try on another PC if you have access to one?

Yeah I will try, if I can find someone else with a computer.

sounds like pretty bad luck, does the card have a bios switch ?

The card does in fact have a BIOS switch, but I've already tried booting with the switch in both positions and had no luck.

 

[peanutismint]

Ok thanks, I tried cleaning my GPU board with alcohol to remove some of the old grime, and also re-seated my CPU, but still the same lack of video output.

I also noticed whilst re-seating my CPU that a few of the pins look a little bent (it's slightly more noticeable at certain angles than others).

I'm usually very careful with the CPU but could this be the cause of the issue? To re-iterate, even with these potentially damaged pins, my PC still boots and runs fine on both internal graphics and also using my older Radeon 7850 graphics card...